


Under the Moons of Darillium: Part 4 A Visit From Madame Kovarian

by Stardance1



Series: Under the Moons of Darillium: A Night of Adventures [4]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005), Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio), The Diary of River Song (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: Darillium, F/M, Multi, Other, Post Darillium, Post-Episode: 2015 Xmas The Husbands of River Song, Singing Towers of Darillium
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-25
Updated: 2018-09-25
Packaged: 2019-07-17 10:22:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16093706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stardance1/pseuds/Stardance1
Summary: A ski trip, dinner out, and a mystery... what could go wrong? Except for a visit from Madame Kovarian!





	Under the Moons of Darillium: Part 4 A Visit From Madame Kovarian

**Author's Note:**

> Please note that this is Part 4 of a Series.

River sat engrossed in her book, a collection of Dorothy Parker's poetry; her feet tucked under her, her head reclining on the Doctor’s chest as she read. His arm was about her shoulder and he was attempting to read his own book as well. They had gotten up late and had a light elevenses meal in the small library on the second Tardis deck. Their teacups and remnants lay discarded on the floor of the room, while they lounged around in their pajamas.  
The Doctor’s splayed hand ever so gently squeezed her shoulder, pulling River closer. His thumb brushed her skin back and forth, until he accidentally touched the strap of her nightgown, causing the thin satin cord to drop low onto her shoulder, exposing the swell of her left breast.  
River heard the sharp intake of his breath, and felt the beats of his hearts quicken in his chest. She looked up from her book amused, meeting his eyes. They were filled with a flickering fire of passion she knew only too well.  
“Hello Sweetie,” River said.  
“River, we have to go to Alphonse’s restaurant soon. We promised ages ago to look in…”  
“Are you trying to convince me Doctor, or yourself?” River asked, her eyes never leaving his.  
But the Doctor didn’t hear her response. He’d already discarded his book and reached over to her with his other hand. His thumb softly rubbing her bottom lip, before he leaned forward and claimed her lips hungrily with his own.  
River moaned into his mouth and blindly discarded her book on the floor. She wrapped her arms around him and let herself be languidly seduced on the cozy sofa.  
Hours later, laid out next to each other, arms still wrapped around each other, the Doctor kissed her forehead and sat up.  
“Well, I think we’ve worked up an appetite, Dear.” the Doctor said smirking at his still flushed wife.  
“Really my love, here I had been lead to believe that your appetite was always insatiable.” River responded with a raised eyebrow, deliberately misunderstanding his meaning.  
That made the Doctor laugh heartily for a moment. His hand mussing her curls.  
“We really do need to see Alphonse, do you mind if we head over early before dinner? We can have an early meal while we look into whatever problem he’s having.”  
“Of course Doctor, but…” River sat up now to face him, “shall we ski over? Only I’ve been watching the snow fall, and I think there is enough to ski at least part of the way. And we can walk the rest.”  
“It sounds fun, the Doctor agreed, "But dress warmly, and let’s get ready now.”  
He stood up and River gazed approvingly at his tall naked form as he strode away.  
Then she grabbed her book up off of the floor, and took a long shortbread biscuit from the tray.  
“Five more minutes,” she said out loud to herself, smiling; and, opening her book up to its marked page, she snuggled back into the sofa pillows.  
_______________________ 

The moonlight was especially bright. It cast a magical glow over the snow as the Doctor and River skied over dunes and raced down mountains.  
Their cheeks were rosy, and their bodies out of breath when, in a valley on the way to Chez Alphonse's, they paused a moment to observe some strange ice formations they had happened across. These clusters of strange ice rose like jagged pieces of slate from the ground, they were organized like rows in a perfectly planted English garden, and they sparkled like sculpted diamonds in the moonlight.  
River stopped and leaned down to touch one. They were all about as high as her knees and remarkably thick.  
“Doctor, they’re beautiful!” River said, shivering a bit from their thick icy touch.  
“This is Darillium's Atamca Valley, River, these shards are called penitentes. They form in the high altitude and they usually point to the brightest moon.”  
They both looked around perplexed. The penitentes were not pointing toward any of the moons, large or small, but rather seemed to be pointed at the shadow of a nearby mountain.  
River shrugged, “They’re lovely anyway.”  
“And lucky... they don’t usually last long, so it’s considered lucky to see them.”  
River leaned up and placed a kiss on the Doctor’s lips. “It’s lucky to find them with you then.”  
Passion flaring, he instantly leaned forward to deepen the kiss, but instead, out of nowhere, River smashed a large firmly packed snow ball onto the side of his head.  
Snow cascaded down the Doctor's coat. Laughing, River turned and raced away. She skied down to the next level of the lower valley, toward the restaurant, before the Doctor could catch her. The Doctor did his best to give chase as he laughed; all the while with a large snowball readily tucked into his coat pocket, prepared as he was to crumble it over his wife's head.  
Just around the bend from the restaurant River advanced quickly on her skis. She leaned forward for speed, but couldn't help but look back for the Doctor. Finally she spied him as he did his best to catch her. Unfortunately, in her excitement, she turned ever so slightly angling too far on her skis to keep watch, and fell straight back into a deep snowbank. Moments later the Doctor dove right into the snow next to her, laughing.  
He looked over at her, both of them still lying next to each other in the snow, and did his best to brush her face clear of the assault of snowflakes. He bopped her nose and leaned over to kiss it.  
She was laughing helplessly the whole time, still frustrated and incredulous with herself for falling into this drift.  
Then suddenly, River stilled, lost in another memory of ice and snow and kisses. She leaned up on her elbows with a grin, “Do you remember skiing together on Feldspoon?” River asked the Doctor, “We got lost in the swaying mountains and had to ski back by starlight?”  
In response, the Doctor pulled her halfway on top of him and wrapped his arms around her, kissing the corners of her smiling mouth.  
“I loved that night,” he said.  
River nodded, “me too.”  
_______________________  
When they were done reminiscing, River and the Doctor removed their skis and walked hand in hand into the restaurant.  
They asked the hostess to please notify Alphonse that his appointment had arrived...after all, they were expected.  
And while they waited, they chatted with each other in the lobby.  
“We need to get out of these wet clothes.” River said making a face at the Doctor, and shaking the still caked snow off of her jacket arms.  
Before he could answer, she took a small glass dual-tipped perfume bottle out of her pocket and spritzed herself from one side, before turning it over and spraying the Doctor from the other.  
Suddenly she was wearing a bright red cocktail dress, her curls twisted and cascading over one shoulder. The Doctor was in a deep burgundy double breasted Kirith-wool suit, a red silk handkerchief and bowtie over a crisp snow white shirt. River looked them over and adjusted his bowtie.  
“We do cut quite the pair, don’t we Doctor.”  
“You do,” said Alphonse, coming up behind them.  
River turned around and smiled at the kindly short-haired gentleman, extending her arm. “I’m the Doctor’s wife, River,” she said, “It’s nice to meet you.”  
“Ma’am, I wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for your husband.”  
River smiled broadly, “Yes, he’s amazing at that isn’t he?”  
Alphonse turned and shook the Doctor’s hands, “Sir, thank you for coming. I’m sorry to trouble you, but we’ve had a load of problems recently. I thought that perhaps you could help us find the solution.”  
“No thanks are needed Alphonse, we’re both happy to be here.” the Doctor put his arm protectively around River’s waist and pulling her closer to his side.  
“Please follow me,” Alphonse beckoned, leading them out a service door, down the stairs, and across several hallways, into the heart of the labyrinth that was the infrastructure of the restaurant.  
After a sharp right turn, he opened an unmarked door that led to the restaurant's Security Office, equipped with closed circuit televisions that monitored the main floor, the private balconies, and the kitchens of Chez Alphonse.  
“Since the evening began,” Alphonse confided solemnly, “we have had beyond our normal share of deaths.”  
“What is a normal share?!” River asked astounded.  
“Well, a restaurant as large as this, during a night on Darillium, basically means that the dinner rush lasts 24 years. We can expect once or twice a season a patron is overwhelmed on the dance floor, or dozes off during the appetizers never to awaken…”  
“So what has your recent share been then...?” asked the Doctor alarmed.  
“Over the past 150 or so hours, we’ve had three waiters disappear, and a total of 10 guests have left here by ambulance to the Darillium hospital.”  
“Ten!?” the Doctor and River both asked simultaneously.  
“I have personally inspected the kitchens, and spoken to the remaining staff, no one witnessed anything untoward, and no one has accused the missing staff of anything, it's like they've just vanished.”  
“Have you found ANY leads?” the Doctor asked grimly.  
“No. We’re not even sure what to look for. No crime has been accused or committed. Quite a few of the guests are from other planets within the galaxy, so there has been not yet been any local formal complaints, and the police have found no evidence to indicate any crime!”  
River moved forward and touched the worried man’s arm. “I’m so sorry, but the Doctor and I will get to the bottom of this…”  
“I think word is getting out. People have started canceling their reservations, and I haven’t been able to hire more staff. Our reputation will be in shreds and all will be lost if we don't find a solution quickly!”  
“River’s right Alphonse. We will exhaust every avenue to find out what’s going on."  
“Thank you, sir, thank you!”  
“We’ll start immediately. River, I’ll look around the restaurant, if you can begin to go through the documentation side with Alphonse?”  
“Absolutely, my love.” 

____________________ 

The Doctor wandered the hallways, opening doors and exploring crevices. Where he could, he’d take readings with his sonic screwdriver, but as Alphonse had claimed, nothing as of yet seemed out of the ordinary.  
He went into the kitchens and found a well-oiled machine of a staff, moving seamlessly, like clockwork; churning out hundreds of varied dishes. Everything looked in order.  
He even secretly peeked in the main room of the restaurant. The tables were all full of the fashionably dressed, enjoying their meals, completely ignorant of the danger that seemed to lurk in the shadows. The Doctor carried out his investigation, casually standing behind potted plants, and creeping along the sidewall, looking completely inconspicuous... at least in his mind. He checked, and double checked, listened in, and observed.  
Next, he walked over to the restaurant bar and found it crowded indeed. But still, nothing out of the ordinary.  
Looking for a new direction, he climbed the stairs to the roof. As soon as he opened the door to the outside, he could feel the heat emanating from an unknown source. He breathed in deeply. There was also the faint aroma of weapons having been discharged recently. He looked out carefully.  
“Well hello beautiful!” he said.  
There before him was parked an intergalactic command ship. It was a dark chrome color and oblong, with rows of lights and vents across the bottom.  
The Doctor touched the ship with the back off his hand to approximate how long it had been since the main power supply had been switched off.  
“You’re still hot!” the Doctor whispered, “Your heat and lights must have created those penitents in the mountains!”  
He scanned the ship with his screwdriver and ran back down below to find River. Perhaps she’d be able to determine further with her computer.  
Out of breath, he opened the door to the security office.  
River looked up. She and Alphonse were hovered over a security desk, clearly leaving no stone unturned in their investigation.  
“What did you find Doctor?”  
“Visitors from afar? A hidden ship, large and built for deep space up on the roof.” He took out his screwdriver and sent the details to River’s computer.  
She kicked off the computations analysis and set the computer down while it scanned registries for the ship’s details.  
“I've had some luck as well, Doctor…” She beckoned to the Doctor to join her. He walked over and looked down at the time-sheets and employee schedules that she had been shuffling through. “Look Sweetie, the waiters that have gone missing were all working the nights of the poisonings. All three of them were also waiting on the tables where a patron was taking ill… and based on these receipts, each of those impacted tables had either ordered a banana daiquiri or a bananas foster.”  
“Did you find out how they faired?”  
“Depended on the species. Some have survived but most have died. We should go to the hospital and check out their computer systems… determine if there is any variance in the symptoms or physiology, maybe narrow down the potential list of poisons."  
“Yes, we could do that....” the Doctor began, but his words were interrupted by a loud security alarm. The entire security office flashed with warning lights, and the communication portal rang.  
“Hurry, someone else has become ill, this time on a small side balcony!” Alphonse said, hanging up the communication control.  
River grabbed her computer, and then the Doctor’s hand. They ran through the restaurant, through the service corridors, to the balcony in question. There, dressed in a fine black suit, was a lone gentleman, slumped dead over his bistro table.  
In his hand, was a tall high-ball glass, almost empty, with the remnants of a banana daiquiri.  
“River,” the Doctor said, turning to her, “have you found any information on the ship?”  
River shook her head, looking down and pressing buttons on her computer. “Whoever they are Doctor, they’ve hidden their tracks well. I can’t find anything yet.”  
The Doctor looked into her eyes, “Then we haven’t a moment to loose!” He grabbed the banana daiquiri glass out of the dead man’s hand, and picked it up to gulp down the last drops, attempting to analyze the poison with his own body by sensing the changes. His arm was already halfway to his mouth before River slapped it away, shattering the glass into the side wall of the balcony.  
“Doctor!” River hissed. "We don’t have time for you to act recklessly heroic!"  
She knelt down next to the broken glass and, taking off one of her earrings, dissolved it in what was left of the spilled liquid.  
"No matter where or when in time and space, a woman has to have her wits about her. How do you think I escaped from the Marquis de Sade’s boudoir? These earrings that I wear will look for certain depressants, tranquilizers, and some common poisons, but I could have done a better job on the Tardis.”  
The Doctor walked over and knelt down next to his wife to observe her as she worked.  
A few beeps later and she dropped her computer on the ground as though it had burned her hand. The Doctor peered over her shoulder to see the results screen.  
River began haltingly, “The sample contains four types of poison:…Spectrox toxaemia, Poison from the Judas Tree, and a third and fourth poison that I could not identify.”  
River was as pale as a sheet, and if the Doctor could see her eyes he would know that they were changing from absolute terror to white hot rage.  
Worried, the Doctor reached out and touched her shoulder.  
He was about to speak when an angry River shoved off his hand and stood up abruptly.  
She spoke quickly in a low and angry voice. She was shaking but trying to retain control. "You... almost risked ...your life! You aren’t invulnerable to everything, Sweetie, and it wouldn't have helped if you had identified poisons that were already killing you... when will you learn to stop running around being careless.”  
The Doctor reached out to hold her for a moment, trying to calm her.  
“River,.. I’m sorry... I’m sorry for acting rashly. I was just trying to stop the killing, but ..."  
"No good will come from your acting...impossible" she stopped herself and sighed. There was no point. She swallowed harshly and didn’t respond to his touch or the comfort he was trying to offer her. “This pure form of spextrox toxaemia and the Judas Tree poison would have killed you and then prevented your regeneration, which is how you scraped out of that fix last time! The third poison is so deadly I can’t even measure its potential effect on my computer, and the fourth I can’t examine at all, it destroyed itself during analysis."  
The Doctor tried to hold her tighter but she twists out in anger, which of course was just her justifiable concern, but this wasn't the time to be reasonable.  
“So if you are interested in a slow, painful, agonizing death, go right ahead, order another one for yourself. But do it alone, because I CAN’T WATCH IT!"  
River stalked off of the balcony and across the service staircase. She just needed a moment to collect her thoughts and figure out what was wrong. There were too many coincidences and she couldn't piece together the reason. Plus she needed him indoors to come to his senses. She was meant to be headed back to the Security office, but just before turning the corner of one hall to the next, she stopped dead in her tracks, as though a suspension beam had frozen her still.  
She couldn’t breathe, in her minds eye she saw dark flashes from her childhood, heard the voices and screams. There were visions too, tortured, trapped and alone; visions of herself pounding on metal doors begging to be let out, and seeing the patched eye of her jailor in the door's window slot.  
In panic, River started taking small careful steps backwards.  
Unknowingly, the Doctor had been behind her, and there to catch her in his arms.  
He hears the same voice that has put River into an emotional frenzy. He reacts immediately, grabbing River’s hand, and pulling her along… “RUN!” he screams into her mind.  
After leading River deeper into the restaurant, he pulls her into the small back room that he had found earlier by the kitchens.  
He turns to her. "It’s Madame Kovarian!”  
But River is still in shock.  
“No!” she repeats quietly to herself.  
“River?"  
"No, No, it’s not possible"  
"River I …"  
"You don’t understand, she’s locked up, she CAN’T be here.”  
“She’s in jail?"  
"Well, not precisely, but she hasn’t escaped, she’s well trapped, watched over by her own angry creations. I’m sure of it! It can’t be her, it can’t… be…. her!”  
River squeezes the Doctor’s hand, "Run, let’s keep running, we have to run!"  
"River, we’re ok, together we’re ok. We can’t run, we have nowhere to run to... we have to stay on Darillium, and we have to stop whatever’s going on here!”  
“Don’t you get it, mister always take a banana to a party? You love bananas, she’s trying to kill you, and the last time she tried at the Bumptious Gastropub, she succeeded and … it ....took quite a lot to get you back!"  
River is even paler, her eyes dilated from fear. The Doctor had witnessed this face of utter terror on River only a few times in all of their hundreds of years bouncing into each other's timeline. The first was when she refused to kill him at their wedding, the other was when King Hydroflax’s posse had her diary and she thought the Doctor’s entire timeline was in jeopardy, that she had somehow left him vulnerable.  
The Doctor understood now, she wasn’t afraid for herself, she was afraid for him.  
He takes hold of her hands and sits down on the floor, pulling her down next to him.  
"Think River, she may be locked away in her future but your past. … killing her here could create a paradox, and we can’t risk you not taking the Halasi’s diamond case or we might not meet and crash on Darillium at all. If she’s here because she thinks we’re meant to come to dinner, then we must let her carry out her plan, think that we’re dead, and then get her off this planet!”  
River smiled weakly, “Can't we just dump a vat of memory worms on her.”  
The Doctor laughed and kissed the curly top of her head.  
"It’s too risky, something could happen to you in that cave… plus we need to uncover her whole plan, and any coconspirators. We just have to come up with our own plan where we have dinner, I don't die from poison, and she leaves.”  
"Well as long as you have a plan," River said sarcastically. "We will figure it out together River." the Doctor held her for a moment, but she pulled back and looked into his eyes. "If anything goes wrong, you take the Tardis and go Doctor. Promise me. Not seeing you ever again is more tolerable if I know you’re out there helping the Universe.”  
“I’m not going to leave you River…” he squeezed her hand, “and we will see each other again... come on, let’s get back to work.”  
_____________________________ 

Clandestinely, River and the Doctor make their way back to the Security office.  
They observe the CC monitors, looking for Kovarian, and making their plan.  
The Doctor turns to River, "Their ship has been scanning Darillium since just after the evening fell, the snow and the terrain have been cloaking us. The first time that we had dinner, we arrived before the sun had set, before evening began. Even so ... why don’t they know we’ve already eaten here?”  
“That’s my doing Doctor… when we were here the first time you said we should make reservations for another meal… since we were going to be here for 24 years, I thought it best to turn that reservation we already had in the system into a flexible reservation.”  
“Is that a thing?”  
“Well, not exactly, it’s more like I hacked into the system with my computer and added a bit of coding. Anytime we call looking to confirm a table, it would see us as having a reservation pending, but they wouldn't see our past reservations.”  
“River, River, River,” he kissed her gently, “you’re a genius…and you probably saved our lives. And here's in our plan. Call in now and make a reservation for an hour from now. If you make it under both of our names, Madame Kovarian will be sure to see it, and set her trap into motion. We’ll be able to observe everything from here.”  
River looked terribly uncertain, but picked up the Security Room communicator and made the call…  
“Hello, yes, this is River Song. I would like to confirm my reservation for my husband the Doctor and myself, for dinner in an hour. We reserved a balcony I believe? We’re do for a romantic night out… facing the towers? Yes, thank you, we'll see you then...”  
Dread splashed over River.  
“Now what?” she asked. The Doctor stood next to her and pulled her closer so that she could lean against him.  
“Now we watch, and wait…”.  
______________________________ 

An hour later, River and the Doctor made their way to the main entrance. There the hostess greeted them and their waiter led them to their balcony table.  
“Can we start you off with any drinks?” the short gentleman slurred…  
River frowned. There was something off about this waiter.  
“Yes,” she answered for both herself and the Doctor, “please bring us two banana daiquiris.”  
"I invented them you know," the Doctor added boisterously, winking at River "in 18th century France!" The waiter stared blankly. “Right away Ma’am,” he finally responded.  
Haltingly, he left to the kitchens to retrieve the poisonous concoction, and River placed her cold trembling hand on the Doctor’s.  
“Do you really think this will work?” she asked.  
He placed his other hand on top of hers. “River, it’s got to!”  
The waiter returned with their drinks, a little too quickly…  
He handed a glass to each, and then stood there awaiting their verdict.  
He was meaning to wait there for them to start drinking the daiquiris…  
Well there went that plan. On to plan B! “River, NOW!” the Doctor shouted in her mind…. 

River and the Doctor simultaneously threw their drinks at their waiter, grabbed each other's hand, stood up and backed further into the balcony.  
The waiter shrieked... or howled... in surprise as the liquid hit his face, and the perception filter overlay making him appear human melted away.  
Instead of the strange little man, there before them now stood a tall hybrid stigorax, a rodent humanoid from the planet Terra Apps. He had the long vicious snout of a wolf, and the piercing eyes of a rat. River gasped, and the Doctor pulled her closer towards him.  
Now Madame Kovarian entered the balcony, slowly clapping.  
“Melody Pond, my child, you don’t seem very happy with your Doctor… no more senseless flirting at your table… You know about the poison then... no matter, I have more than one trick up my sleeve…my devoted stigorax followers have been very useful in mining poisons for me… ”  
“You’re not going to win Madame Kovarian…” River said forcefully, leaning forward. Kovarian shrugged and turned her attention toward the Doctor.  
“So Doctor, history says that this is your last meal together … I’ve decided as a parting gift, this should be the day the Doctor dies!”  
“I said you’re not going to win!…” River shouted at her, “You, or your hairy groupies!”  
River and the Doctor take off, running, hand in hand, off of the balcony and down through a secret service shaft that they had found earlier.  
They arrive at the busy kitchens, and with his sonic screw driver, the Doctor locked the service shaft door, preventing anyone from following, and hopefully trapping a few stigorax. The Doctor turns around and sees that there, at the back of the large room, stands the Tardis.  
River turns to the Doctor, and holds his face in her hands. “I had Nardole bring it here. It’s ok, listen to me, you have to run. Just go. I love you. Live, please live, and go!”  
“River...” the Doctor moans and wraps her in his arms.  
“No,” she responds, shoving his chest with both hands, “I won’t let her kill you again, please ....just run! I'll find you again, I've crisscrossed time so often, no matter what rules, I swear I will do whatever it takes, just go now.  
Suddenly the kitchen is full of stigorax, a circle of at least 20 surround the Doctor and River, growling softly, their teeth glistening as they salivate.  
“Um Doctor, I think I’ve just figured out what happened to those missing waiters….” “Yes, I’ve also just recalled that stigorax are carnivorous….but these are well trained, River, not wild; they are acting under Kovarian's control!”  
As if on cue, Madame Kovarian walks into the kitchen and into the inner circle of stigorax.  
River squeezes the Doctor's hand with all her strength...for what may be the final time and ...lets him go.  
She steps forward alone to face Madame Kovarian. She doesn't even turn around. But with her mind she whispers again to him... "Go my love, RUN!"  
River addressed Madame Kovarian, "You can’t hurt us Kovarian. You have no control, the Doctor will always escape, he will always fight for what’s right and I will be by his side as long as I can be!”  
While River is talking, distracting Madame Kovarian and the stigorax, the Doctor runs to the Tardis, jumping inside. Just as the doors slam behind him, the Tardis engines begin to turn on.  
But Madame Kovarian is ready, having found the Tardis earlier, she has set her trap around it. It’s a clustered bomb, with a core of highly pressurized magnesium dust, laced with and surrounded by a cloud of mustard gas and other chemicals meant to flash every particle of the Tardis with heat from an exothermic reaction, thereby creating an implosion and shorting out all circuitry to prevent it from escaping its own destruction.  
Not a nanosecond after the Tardis engines began, the explosion hit, and Tardis seemed to collapse, folding itself into the flames.  
The Doctor hadn’t activated the controls to move in time or space, River knew there hadn’t been enough time.  
The entire restaurant shook from the rippled aftershock and River sank down to her knees, as though the implosion had withered her inside as well.  
“No!" River mouthed, but no sound came out. “NO!”  
Madame Kovarian laughed. "I guess for once the legends were right. Your Doctor has gone and your date on Darillium is over! He’s dead and you won’t meet him again…. Oh pet, don’t make that face it might freeze that way, and really what are you without your looks… too bad you loved him.”  
River took the last ounce of strength she possessed and tried fruitlessly to wring Madame Kovarian’s neck.  
“Loved? You’re wrong. The Doctor and I could both be dead for a thousand years, and my love for him would still be present, future, and infinite."  
Madame Kovarian just laughed.  
"Now you can enjoy your life, and a world without the Doctor….” Madame Kovarian called to her rodent minions. "Take her back to the ship. She’ll be my trained assassin, as we lay down our new world order, without the Doctor to meddle!”  
But by now, people were running all over the restaurant screaming as alarms blared from everywhere. The trained stigorax seemed confused by the commotion. And thick yellow mustard gas was slowly seeping from the flames, like an impossibly heavy yellow fog creeping dangerously ever closer to River. The stigorax try to pull River, but she clawed and kicked and bit them like a mad woman. Then, she returns to her place, kneeling on the ground. 

The situation was becoming dire. Madame Kovarian put on a gas mask and glared at her.  
River glared back.“Can’t you just let me die? After all that you’ve taken from me, my husband, my parents, my life, just let me go!”  
Madame Kovarian looked down at her, from behind the mask, “Goodbye Melody” she said, and turned and walked away, followed by her ratlike henchmen who limp injured behind her.  
River doesn’t watch them leave. She is frozen, still kneeling on the ground, not moving. Her eyes are arrested to where the Tardis once stood.  
Time has slowed down. It weighs heavily on her hearts. Everything is in slow motion. She tells her body to move. She tells her mind to keep going. But something has fractured. She can’t breathe, she can’t feel, she can’t sense time tick past, except for the ominous yellow clouds moving toward her.  
All she can think is, I killed him, it’s my fault, oh my god, the Doctor is dead. Her body may have been trembling, but she didn't know. "I'm so sorry my love" River confessed in a broken whisper to the empty room.  
The fog seeped closer to her, now just feet away, but she couldn't comprehend it. Twenty-four years. She had been promised twenty-four years with that man. All of their lives, chasing each other across time and space, with this promise of a moment. That's all she had wanted. Didn't she deserve a moment? After Storm Cage and the Silence and ... She looked down at his ring on her finger, and sank down onto the back of her legs, her survival instinct just frozen. She can’t go after Kovarian, she promised the Doctor not to interfere. She can’t undo their time on Darillium, it is all that she has left of him. She can still say this night, this night she was with him. This night he had made love to her. This night they will die together.  
Maybe her death could cause a paradox? She didn't have anything left to give him, she felt succumbing to her grief. Her hearts are racing so fast the beat can’t even be distinguished, almost like the sound of rushing water; like the sound of a river, even faster than the drum of a woodpecker.  
But, in her minds eye she can see that woodpecker, feel him in her chest pecking her hearts to shreds.  
She closes her eyes, tightly, letting go of the pain, surrendering to whatever fate brought next.  
But then the moment continued...  
“River?”  
She can feel two hands around her as she ever so slowly opens her eyes.  
She is in the Tardis, in the console room. The Doctor is on his knees facing her.  
She can see the worry in his eyes, but she can’t react, can’t register what has happened.  
She’s in a dream, she’s paralyzed, she's stuck inside herself and can’t break free.  
“River...” he whispers this time, rubbing her arms as though he were trying to warm her, or restart her circulation.  
She closes her eyes. It’s a dream. She’s given into madness.  
“River, it’s fine, we’re here, on Darillium. Nothing happened, we’re together.”  
Seconds tick by.… … … …  
“How?” she whispers back harshly, refusing to open her eyes, refusing to look, or let herself believe, again.  
“The Hostile Action Dispersal System, I moved the Tardis before the blast.”  
“You never set it properly.”  
The Doctor half chuckled and tried to hold her again, but she sinks further down and away.  
“I didn’t set it properly. It dispersed a short distance away to a valley in the desert. Then I tried to move back here and ended up at another restaurant, or I would have been back sooner for you. But I got it under control and just had the Tardis track you and materialize around you.  
River looked at him. She whispered softly, “I didn’t hear her land?”  
The Doctor grinned, “I took the parking break off. Stealth mode. Just how you like it”  
He winked at her. But there was still no response from her. No sassy River.  
“The bomb,” she said.  
“Don’t worry River. I scanned the restaurant, everyone got out safely and the worst is done. The gasses and chemicals will dissipate on their own, and I left word for Alphonse to wash everything down with water and bleach. The implosion folded in on itself, there shouldn't even be any structural damage. "  
But River just closed her eyes again. She didn’t have the energy to move.  
The Doctor was starting to panic. He wasn’t having any success in reaching her.  
He stood up in front of her.  
"River, come here!" the Doctor said sternly, trying to use his voice to reach her.  
River momentarily snapped out of her dazed state and her eyes met his as she looked up. She stared at him, her eyes not filled with tears, but glassy, like at any moment she could shatter all the way down to her soul. She ever so softly shook her head, "NO".  
“River," he whispered raspingly, "please come here".  
Something about his voice this time reached her, and convinced her to try. She stood up, and was gently folded into his arms.  
But she continued to shake her head against his shirt.  
She picked up her hands as though to push his chest away, but there was no strength in them.  
"No. It’s not you. You don’t even like hugs." she said her voice still so soft. "You said once that hugs were just a way for people to hide their faces from one and other.” The glass in her eyes turned to liquid pools of pain. "This is a projection, another cruel joke by Madame Kovarian. It wasn’t enough for her to kill you, she wants to keep torturing me, like she did to my mother, like she did to me."  
The Doctor skin felt bruised by her words. His own misspoken words flung back at his heart.  
“River, please don’t doubt me now.” He whispered into her hair. "I said hugs shouldn’t be trusted. But listen to me!…" He grabbed her shoulders and shook her slightly before wrapping her in a tighter hug. "That doesn’t pertain to us River. It never did. Because I trust you, and you trust me. River, we don’t run when we’re scared. Rule 7 remember? I would never have left River, you know that. Think... NEVER…"  
He moved his hands up and tangled them into her hair, coiling his fingers into her curls.  
He held her tightly, breathing her in.  
But she wouldn’t let herself feel.  
“NO" she said again. Tears began slowly rolling down her eyes.  
He opens his mental telepathy. He says his name to her as evidence of his identity, and then he whispers. "River, It’s me, trust me. It’s me and I love you. I WOULD NOT LEAVE".  
River finally looks into his eyes. But she closes the mental link. She is hurt, angry, she wants to lash out, she wants to react, if only she could make herself move.  
"You will one day though.” She says to him. "I get a little time, maybe, and then will just have to relive this pain another day.”  
He can’t hold her tightly enough to erase this pain. Not hers, HIS. How many times will they have to say goodbye? But it has to be worth it, because there is no way he could ever rip an ounce of her out of his heart.  
He moves his face to her head, pressing his head gently, solemnly, to hers.  
"I don’t know River, I don’t know. I don’t know where time and space will take us from here, but I swear that no matter where or when that is, my love for you will be unchanged,” he whispers back to her, and then through his mental connection, he recommits their vow, once again, "always and completely." He broadens the telepathic link so she can feel his shared love, feel everything that he feels for her, feel the promise he is making her.  
River swallows. The anger and shock begin to ebb, and tears roll down her face. Slow silent sobs shake her shoulders, and strangle the Doctor’s heart.  
He needed to show her, he needed to feel her, he needed her to know how much he needed her.  
She looked so human, so tired and lost and fragile. So unlike HIS River.  
But he loved her completely, and would prove himself to her...he didn’t know in what… or how. But he did know that he was here for her, that he would stand by her, and he would move the Universe now to show her.  
He held the back of her head as he pressed his forehead onto hers. Humbly, he begged her to come back to him. He vowed to show her that all that he was, was and would always be, hers.  
She looked up at him silently, expectingly, as he slowly stripped her of her clothing, letting the pieces fall to the floor of the Tardis console room.  
Naked, he picked her up, and carried her just a few steps back, to one of the chairs in the console room.  
He sat her down and began to take off his own clothes.  
He kneeled in front of the chair.  
He reached out to hold her face in his hands. Bopping her nose with his own, kissing the corners of her mouth, nuzzling her neck.  
She wrapped her arms around his neck, tightly, desperately needing to hold on to him, hold him down so the world would stop spinning.  
He couldn’t move his head, so he moved his hands across her body. He cupped her breasts, Rubbed the buds of her nipples until they were firm and begging his tongue to flick them. He groaned softly as his thumbs circled them. He let his hands fall lower, to her knees and slowly up the softness of her thighs.  
His fingers toyed with her, brushed across the inner folds of her body.  
River sighed and let her head fall back and let go of the Doctor’s head.  
Immediately, he let his mouth find her breasts, licking her hardened nipples until he heard her breathing quicken. He gently widened her legs around him and leaned closer to kiss the soft sweetness of her body, letting his tongue probe and flick into her, relishing the taste of her, of his River, wild like the flower forests of Vortis, deep like the fabric of space, and as timeless as the vortex that had given her life.  
She tasted like the very nectar of life, his life. He groaned again, into her, and wrapped his arms around her waist so that he could reach further. There his hands could feel her hearts pounding against her ribcage.  
He stood up and gently wrapped his arms around her whole body, lifting her and cradling her horizontally onto his lap as he sat down with her in the chair.  
Lifting her onto him, he gently rocked her up and down along the full length of his erection. River moaned loudly with pleasure and gripped onto his arms. She lay her head back onto his shoulder, her curls streaming across her face, his shoulders, and his back.  
Finally she met his eyes and he could see her there, River, his River. In her eyes he could see the Universe.  
Flickers of golden light seemed to shake out of the space around them, but neither of them noticed because they couldn’t break this gaze. The Doctor’s arms tightened around her, as he hoisted her and moved her up and down on top of him.  
He held her close to him as the tremors of ecstasy overtook her and, fully sheathed within her, he let go of her legs, letting her weigh bring her even closer as he thrust into her hearts. River’s body came fully back to life, she reached down and squeezed the Doctor’s thighs, her fingernails biting into his skin as a scream again escaped her lips. She called his name in his mind, letting it fill her thoughts and spill into his consciousness, repeating it over and over again like a prayerful litany.  
With their minds linked, River could also feel his worry and his pain.  
River stood up, faced the Doctor and sat on his lap again, this time with her legs wide apart, straddling both the Doctor and the chair. Fully inside of her, the Doctor sighed just as River took his mouth, flicking his tongue with her own, coaxing it into her mouth so that she could suck gently on it as she rose and slid back down rhythmically onto his arousal. She increased her rhythm, tightening her core around the Doctor as she cradled him inside her, all the while holding his head, kissing his mouth, running her fingers through his hair. His fingers were clutching her hips, willing them closer. When he finally surrendered to her, the torrent surged through both of their bodies.  
“River", he whispered to her,"...I’m sorry"  
She held his beloved face to hers. "I know” she whispered back.  
"I love you."  
She touched her lips to his, "I know” she whispered on them.  
"I’m not going anywhere..."  
She wrapped her arms around him.  
“...I’m not going anywhere,” he continued.  
Her eyes were glistening when she looked into his eyes. Their arms were still wrapped around each other, he was still inside her, she was still on top of him.  
"I know," she repeated. "We’re getting married,” he said.  
“Yes”  
“In a few hours"  
“Yes?”  
“Yes”  
River nodded, “Yes."  
“And we’ll always be each others."  
“Always and completely.”  
“Always and completely.”  
She nodded again accepting his promise, trusting him.  
She lay her head down on his shoulder, and he held her there until she fell asleep.  
He stood up then, and carried her to their bed.  
There, he held her close, and he watched her sleep.  
But he didn’t so much as blink. He didn’t take his eyes off of her, and he didn’t sleep.  
More than once a tear escaped his control, and rolled out of his eyes only to get lost in the curls of her hair. He could no longer hide from himself the complete terror he felt hours earlier at the thought that that Kovarian could have had her way again with River, hurt her again, and that he was powerless.  
He had to prove himself to her, and he didn’t know how. It might take his life, or only the next 24 years, but he was going to find a way.No, he was going to fight for a way.  
And it would start as soon as she awoke, with their wedding.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Look for more Doctor and River Song stories, every week! Next week: Part 5 - A Wedding, Take Two!


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